The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A major bottled water supplier yesterday said it might have to limit service to some independent depots to enable production to catch up with demand.

Christian Knowles, Aquapure’s operations chief, told Tribune Business: “We’re not having any production issues; we’re producing at full steam ahead. It’s just how much the demand is.”

"I have a juggling act. My trucks come back in the yard, and I want to be able to turn them around and get them back on the road, but I still want to be able to replenish my depot. So you can imagine the situation we have if we’re running production straight through.

"As we get the empty five gallon bottles they get turned around, put back on our industrial line. Then they get washed, they get sanitised, they get filled, and then they are right back on the trucks or the depot."

Mr Knowles continued: “When we get high demand, and people may want 10 to 15 bottles of water each, I have to service them and I also have to be able to keep my depot going. As the depot gets depleted I supply it, but the juggling act I was referring to is that we also have trucks on the road.

“So my trucks are on the road, and they are delivering to all of my customers. A lot of the critical places like the hospitals and the food stores, and places where people go to get water, my trucks are on the road dealing with that as well as at people’s homes and for people that cannot come out.

"It is very important that we try and turn those around fast so my trucks can get back on the road and do deliveries. As my trucks are on the road I am trying to keep my depot stocked so we don’t run out of supply there either. That’s my juggling act that I am finding myself in right now," he added.

"We haven’t stopped production. There is no water shortage, we haven’t sold out and we won’t sell out. As long as I am producing I am putting product back out there.”

Many independent water depots were out of water when Tribune Business pulled up yesterday. “I feel for the independent depots, especially at a time like this when a lot of people are out of jobs and they are fortunate enough to be able to broker in a commodity that is in very high demand now, and a necessity," Mr Knowles said.

"But they still have their challenges because the independent water depots get water from all of the other water companies. We have two depots that are under our umbrella. We have two company depots; one is on Marathon and Wulff Road, and the other is our main depot at our Bernard Road plant.”

"There are a lot of other independent depots that are around the island, and they get water from the other suppliers. We supply some of them. But I can imagine that when they go and get themselves resupplied they are finding themselves in the same situation as everybody on the line and, in a lot of cases, when it gets to the point where you have to take stock of where your priorities are, you might have to limit some people from getting certain amounts.

“You can’t service everybody that wants to get 20 or 30 bottles of water, and you have to limit them, so what we say is that we will give you some now and we will give you some later. So I can imagine that this is the problem that they are facing."